Reception Baseline Assessment – Will It Work?

The baseline assessment will be brought into schools in Autumn 2020 however a pilot of the scheme will be utilised this Autumn. The aim of this initiative is assessing mathematics and language skills of every four and five-year-old starting school; this will mean that there will be added pressure on parents to get their children to learn literacy and numeracy from the age of two or three, so they achieve good grades. Although I can see the merit of this, it means that a child will essentially lose some very precious time of their childhood of play to learn literacy or numeracy. One question should be asked; Can four-year-olds be reliably tested?

Primary school teachers have a lot of responsibility, as well as a lot of standardised tests to distribute to their students; the Phonics test, Year 2 SATs, Year 6 SATs and now the baseline test. Another test does not contribute to good learning, this does not let children learn in their own way.

If the baseline assessment does come to fruition, as soon as a child of four-years-old starts school, they must take a test to see how they compare to their peers. What will this do to both child and parents psychologically? Having been in a nursery for, potentially, a year of two, then being told that we have to asses you straight away, it does not give the best picture for starting primary school.

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